After a short "last-minute one-person drafting session" to find some language on Patents, Copyrights and Trademarks, Free Software and Open Access for the PCT Working Group to go into the Civil Society statement last night, I’ve again endured the bus ride to Hammamet in order to get to my hotel.
When getting on the bus this morning, security asked everyone to open their suitcase, as usual looked into all bags and made me reflect how much time I lost due to security and inefficient transport. My first estimate is that I spent roughly 15 hours on the bus in Tunisia this week, and had around a total of 2 hours of time waiting for busses to finally get going.
This does not factor in lost time due to the need to leave early to make it back to the hotel, and the time spent in front of security scanners. So all things considered, I probably lost 24hrs of working time during this week — although people of course tried to make up for it by networking on the bus. When the secret service bus driver didn’t crank up the pan-flute music so loud that you could not speak comfortably anymore, that is.
Many people in Civil Society felt the presence of security to be quite oppressive, and especially women were telling stories how they could hardly walk five meters without being approached by some guy until some lost their nerve and went back to the hotel. The last time I have personally felt similarly put under surveillance was when visiting the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) as a schoolkid.
I realise that I have hardly met any Tunisians who I did not have to assume belonged to secret service. Most of the people in Civil Society seemed to belong to what people have begun referring to as "GONGO", which stands for "Governmental Non-Governmental Organisation." Maybe you could also call them SGOs (Secret Governmental Organisations).
This mainly made me sad.
I am sure that many people tried hard to make us feel welcome, to embrace us in Arab and African hospitality. Their work was effectively destroyed by secret service goons in identical grey suits. This is very sad: I am absolutely certain that Tunisia has more to it than secret service, paranoia and repression, but it was made very difficult for us to discover that.
But it is too simple to judge the people of an entire country by the behaviour of its secret service or its government. So I think I should come back to see this country at its best, and find out how people in Tunisia really live. Fortunately there is hope for that: I made contact with some people from the Tunisian Free Software movement, and hopefully we will be in touch.
But first I have to grab my flight back to Germany.
